Fate is a Four Letter Word
by ItalianCrybaby
Summary: Alfred and Arthur dream of becoming great Pokemon trainers. But what happens when they start to get a bit too competitive with each other? (USUK. HetaliaxPokemon crossover)
1. Chapter 1

This is a story based off of the Pokemon episode "Wherefore Art Thou Nidoran?"

It's written for the lovely IggyCat who said on her Tumblr that she would love to see a usuk story based off of the episode. I hope you all enjoy it.

I do not own Hetalia or Pokemon!

* * *

I had been in the market place with my mother when I'd come across some news that sent me running as fast as my little five-year-old legs could carry me. I didn't like running and I usually tried my best to avoid the activity and I knew that I was going to be in a lot of trouble with my mother later for running off, but I just had to share this news as soon as possible with my neighbor and best friend, Arthur Kirkland.

Once I'd reached Arthur's house I knocked on the door loudly and repeatedly until a boy slightly shorter than me answered the door.

"Bloody hell Alfred! Are you trying to break down my door?!" Arthur inquired with an annoyed look on his face, but his annoyance turned into concern when he noticed how out of breath I was. "Are you alright? You're not getting ill are you?"

I smiled at that. Arthur always acted tough but I knew he was a big softy because he would have moments like these where he would show concern for the littlest of things.

"Aww, is little Artie getting worried about his best friend." I teased once I'd caught my breath.  
I couldn't help but grin wider when Arthur started to blush and stammer. He always had interesting reactions whenever I tease him.

"Who are you calling little? I'm older than you by 4 months!" Arthur stated. His annoyed expression had returned.

"3 months and 18 days." I corrected with a smug smile.

"Well, if you're not sick and you have nothing better to do than be smarmy with me then I'm just going to go back inside and leave you here on my doorstep." Arthur replied while starting to close the door.

"Nooooo!" I cried (perhaps a bit too dramatically) and stuck my foot in the doorway. "I ditched my mom and ran all the way over here from the market to tell you something! I'm sorry for being smurfy, so please don't shut the door on me!"

Arthur opened the door again with a small grin on his face. I wasn't sure if he was grinning because of my distress when Arthur tried to close the door or because he heard that I'd had run across town just to tell him some news.

"You could have just said so in the first place." He said leaning against the doorframe. "Now what's so important that you felt the need to abandon your mother at the market place in order to tell me?"

"Well, you know how I got all bummed out because the Towns Annual Pokemon Completion takes place before my birthday?" I asked.

"Yes…" Arthur answered with a bit of pity in his voice. They had both wanted to compete together, but only kids 6 to 10 got to compete and I wouldn't be able to compete with Arthur because the completion took place in between our birthdays.

"Look at what they had in town!" I excitedly pulled a flyer out of my pocket that I'd found in town and handed it to Arthur. "It says that someone's Electrode got loose and blew up one of the offices… don't worry no one got hurt." I quickly added when I saw a worried look on Arthur's face. "But it's gonna take them a while to fix all of the damage and retrieve important files so they moved the competition date to the weekend after my birthday!"

Arthur's eyes brightened at the news. "So that means you'll get to compete with me!"

"Hell yeah it does!" I replied ecstatically. I started bouncing on the balls of my feet with excitement. "Are you gonna use your Skitty?"

"Mr. Pinky is my mother's Pokemon…" Arthur answered and gave me an irritated look when I snickered at the Skitty's name. "… Anyways I haven't caught my own Pokemon yet. They're rather hard to catch without a Pokeball."

"Oh yeah, I forgot we have to catch our own." I deflated. I completely forgot that the whole point of the competition was to encourage the towns children into catching and training their own Pokemon at an early age. "I guess that means using my dad's Growlithe is out of the question."

"Yes, it would seem so." Arthur responded while rolling his eyes.

"Well, I'm sure it's not that hard trying to catch a Pokemon." I said confidently. "I bet I'll even be able to catch mine before you catch yours."

"Really?" Arthur raised an eyebrow with a challenging look on his face. Arthur and I were always trying to 'one up' each other. I guess we both just really liked being competitive with each other. "I'm positive that I'll be the one…"

"Alfred Foster Jones!"

We both whipped our heads around to find my mom standing on porch next door. She was holding a handful of groceries and giving me a stern look.

I cursed lightly under my breath. I hated it when she called me by my full name. Why did parents have to emphasize how much trouble their kids were in by calling out their full name?

"You better skedaddle Alfred Foster Jones before you get into anymore trouble." Arthur chuckled.

I reluctantly said good bye to Arthur and followed my mother into the house with my head down. I suffered through my mother's scolding for running off when she needed my help and made it up to her by putting all the groceries away.

Once she was appeased, I grabbed some supplies I'd thought might help me catch a Pokemon and ran off to the park.

After a few days of trail and error, I was finally able to catch a Pidgey by setting up a simple trap involving a box and some breadcrumbs.

I felt proud of myself for all of my hard work if done and I was ecstatic to find a Pokemon that I knew no other kid in town had. I felt that this made my Pidgey special and unique.

Of course I wanted to show off my new Pokemon to Arthur right away. So once again, I found himself knocking on my friends door. This time, with my new Pidgey perched on my shoulder.  
Arthur answered the door right away. He had a smile on his face but his expression turned into one of confusion when he saw me with his new Pokemon, and I was positive that my expression matched Arthur's when I saw…

"Um hey Artie… Did you know that you've got a Pidgey on your head?" I inquired.

"Of course I know I've got a Pidgey on my head." Arthur answered. I continued to stare at the Pokemon; I still didn't understand what was going on here. Arthur seemed to notice my confusion and said, "He's my Pokemon. I caught him yesterday."

"You caught a Pidgey?" I asked in disbelief. "But that's not fair. I caught a Pidgey!" I whined gesturing to the bird resting on my shoulder. I knew that was a really stupid and immature thing to say, but seeing Arthur with the same Pokemon as I had made me feel less proud of myself.

I mean, seriously! What are the chances that my best friend catches the exact same Pokemon as me for the competition?! It made me feel like my Pokemon was less special less unique than I originally felt it was.

"Not fair?" Arthur repeated furrowing his eyebrows. "Don't be ridiculous Alfred. I'm sure I worked just as hard as you did to catch my Pidgey."

I still wanted to pout, but I knew Arthur was right. I couldn't stay upset for something as little as having the same Pokemon as my friend.

"You're right. Sorry Arthur." I sighed which caused him to smile. "Congratulations on catching your first Pokemon."

"You too." He replied. "If you'd like, perhaps we could train our Pokemon together?"

"Uhh… no thanks." I said awkwardly refusing his offer. "I wanted to try training Pidgey on my own."

"Oh." Arthur looked a little crestfallen and that made me feel bad. "Well, good luck training your Pokemon. I guess I'll see you later?"

"Yeah, totally." I answered already backing away towards my house. "I'll talk to you later."

I waved good bye to Arthur and mentally prepared how my training would start. Arthur may have the same Pokemon as me but I was going to make sure mine was better and win the competition.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx  
Second Competition

Ok so last year I didn't win the competition, but I got third place and that is actually pretty good for my age. I would have been a lot happier with my placing third if Arthur hadn't tied with me. I've never even heard of people tying for third place before! So much for the stupid points system.

But whatever, that was last year. This year I was gonna definitely going to win that competition and beat Arthur. And if I was going to do that then I was going to have to find another Pokemon.

This year I started my search for another Pokemon a little earlier than most people did. By giving myself a little head start I was able to find an Oddish and I had a lot of time to train it.

Sadly, the downside to me focusing all of my attention on training Oddish meant that I wasn't spending any time with Arthur.

We were usually inseparable but in the month before the competition we'd hardly said a word to each other. A few days before the competition, I started to feel really guilty about not talking to my best friend. So I decided it was time to make my way over to Arthur's. I was about to leave my house and opened my front door but to my surprise (and pleasure) Arthur was standing there with his fist raised as if he was about to knock.

"Arthur!" I exclaimed happily. "Hey! I was just about to make my way over to your house."

"Oh well, I'm happy to hear that." Arthur said with a small smile. He crossed his arms in a sort of self hug and he looked a little nervous. "I'm so sorry I haven't talked to you these last few weeks. I've just been so busy preparing for the competition this Saturday and…"

Arthur looked guilty as he continued apologizing to me and I couldn't help but hold my sides and laugh. This caused Arthur to stop and stare at me with confusion.

"Oh man, Artie! I was feeling bad about not seeing you 'cause I've also been so busy training my Pokemon." I said with relief. "I thought you would be upset with me for not hanging out with you."

"Well, I can't be upset with you when I've been doing the same thing." Arthur laughed lightly in relief.

"So, you've been doing some extra training with your Pidgey?" I asked.

"Actually, I was able to catch another Pokemon." He said with a hint of pride.

"Oh, really?" I wasn't expecting Arthur to look for another Pokemon but I didn't let it bother me much. "That's cool. I had caught another Pokemon too. I don't mean to brag but I'm sure I got a winner on my hands."

"I'm sure you would think differently if you saw my Pokemon." Arthur challenged.

"I doubt it!"

"Then there is only one way to solve this." Arthur said putting his hands on his hips. "Go get your Pokemon and I'll meet you in the garden. Then we'll see who has the most impressive looking Pokemon."

"Alright." I agreed excitedly. "I'll meet you there in a few minutes."

Arthur rushed off towards his house and I went upstairs to grab my Oddish before heading to the garden.

The garden was an area connected to both of our houses and it was full of flowers. The bushes were so large that Arthur and I often came here to play hide and seek. It was also shaded and very cool during the summer times. It was a nice place to hang out with Arthur.

I had gotten to the garden first so I waited for Arthur on the bench next to the rose bushes. It was the shadiest spot in the garden and my Oddish took a liking to it right away. It was so cute how he rolled around on the cool grass. If that doesn't win the judges over then I don't know what will.

I then noticed Arthur walking into the garden so I called him over to where I was sitting. Arthur hurriedly ran over looking cheerful until he saw my Pokemon.

"You have got to be kidding me."

I'm not sure if that was me or Arthur who said that, or maybe it was both of us, but either way it was obvious that we were both very annoyed when we realized that we had both caught an Oddish.

Arthur's Oddish jumped out of his arms to join mine by jumping around on the grass. The two little Pokemon were completely unaware if the tension growing between me and Arthur.

"How does this happen twice?!" I said throwing my hands up in the air out of aggravation.

"This can't be coincidence." Arthur mused to himself.

"Are you saying that I copied you?" I said in annoyance.

"Oh hush up. You know that's not what I meant." Arthur snapped. "I'm just trying to figure out how we keep getting the same Pokemon."

"Yeah, well you go ahead and do that." I grabbed my rolling Oddish and made my way out of the garden. "I think I'm going to do some more training."

I was much too irritated to to feel bad about walking away from Arthur in such a huff. It wasn't his fault that this happened, but I just wanted to stand out in the competition. Hopefully if I trained hard enough with my Oddish we could still win.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx  
Third Competition

Arthur and I apologized to each other before last years competition had started, but that doesn't mean our attitudes improved much.

Our irritation grew when we both tied again; this time for second place. Now every time someone mentions the competition around us we would somehow end up bickering with each other. We would always apologize soon after but I still hated the fact that it took something so small to start a fight between us.

After each fight I felt a little more determined to win. It made me think that if I could beat Arthur then the fighting would stop cause we wouldn't feel the need to be better than the other if I won, right? …Well it makes sense in my head.

Once again, I put a lot of effort into finding a new Pokemon for this years competition. I had discovered that a Buneary had been sneaking into the garden at nighttime to munch on some flower petals. I spent many nights out in the garden chasing after it (it always hopped in circles around me like I was playing a game with it) I was finally able to catch it.

It was a cute and perky little Pokemon but it took me forever to train. It liked to bounce around way to much, even for a Buneary! Eventually all of my hard work payed off, and Buneary was listening to all of my commands.

Sadly, the active little Buneary took up so much of my time that I didn't see Arthur at all before the competition! It had been weeks seen I'd seen him and it was already the day of the event.

As I waited in line to sign in my Buneary, I tried looking for Arthur. I was hoping to see him before the event started but I couldn't see him anywhere. I gave up my search and figured he was running late when a Nurse joy helped me sign in.

"Aww! Look at this cute little Buneary!" She cooed. My Buneary was loving the attention and started showing off by hopping around on the table. Nurse Joy giggled at his antics and I felt very proud of my Pokemon until she said, "Aww! He's just as adorable as the other one I saw today."

"What?!" I asked in disbelief. This could not be happening. Not a third time. "Someone else has a Buneary?"

"Yes, that's right." She answered. She was petting my Buneary and was completely unaware of my frustration. She glanced at her files and said, "As a matter of fact, you get to share a waiting room the boy who has the Buneary. You're in waiting room 4 with Arthur Kirkland."

I immediately headed for room 4 forgetting to pick up my Buneary. I weaved through the crowded area, not even bothering to apologize to the people I ran into.

I halted in the doorway of room 4 and found Arthur doing some warmups with his Buneary. Arthur turned towards me when noticed me and smiled.

"Hello Alfred. Are you ready for the competition?"

"Have you been spying on me?!" I demand completely ignoring his question.

His smile dropped and he stared at me like I had gone insane. "What on earth are you talking about?"

I didn't have to answer his question because right then my Buneary hopped into the room completely out of breath from having to chase after me. Arthur's look of confusion melted into one of anger at the accusation.

"You think I've been spying on you to get the same Pokemon?!" Arthur fumed. His hands balled into fists at his side.

"You said yourself that this can't be coincidence!" I exclaimed so loudly it caused both of our Bunearies to roll up their ears and hide under one of the chairs.

"I said that over a year ago!" Arthur snapped back. "I thought it was odd but it doesn't mean I've been purposely trying to catch the same Pokemon as you!"

"How do I know that?" I was too angry to think rationally at this point. "Maybe you were jealous of my Pokemon and how cleverly I trained them."

"I've seen the way you practice so believe me when I say I would never be jealous of you and your idiotic training skills!" Arthur scoffed.

That last insult stung a bit. I hated when people used any form of the word idiot when referring to me or my talents. My wounded pride caused me to round on Arthur. "Hard to believe you could see anything through those bushy eyebrows on your face."

I immediately regretted commenting on Arthur's eyebrows when a hurt look came across his face. I knew how self conscious Arthur was about his eyebrows even though I told him multiple times that I thought they looked good in him.

I felt horrified with what I'd just said to Arthur. The room was quiet for a few moments. "Arthur…" I said softly starting to apologize.

"You know what Alfred Jones?!" Arthur bellowed with such intensity it caused me to take a step back. "I couldn't care less about what an idiot like you thinks of me!"

And the idiot insult caused me to become enraged again. I clenched my teeth and yelled, "Oh yeah well I couldn't care less about what you think of me too!"

"If you don't care then maybe we shouldn't be friends anymore!" Arthur yelled harshly.

I hid the shock and hurt I felt at Arthur's words and yelled back, "Well if you don't want to be friends with me anymore then that's fine with me!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

We both turned on our heels and sat on opposite sides of the room. I refused to look at Arthur and he refused to look at me. I was fighting back tears that threatened to spill over. My Buneary finally came out of its hiding place to rest its head on my lap in a comforting way. I picked him up and held onto him tightly until the event began.

Arthur and I ended up tying once again. This time for first place. We stood together on the highest of the three tiered podium but neither of us looked happy to be there. We stubbornly looked in opposite directions to emphasize our anger with the other.

We continued to be angry with each other and stopped hanging out entirely. I completely avoided the garden fearing I would run into Arthur. I tried to convince myself that it wasn't my fault but I knew it was.

* * *

I feel so bad making them fight with each other QAQ I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter though. I aso recently found out that Foster is one of the names that Hima had in mind for Alfred's middle name. The other options were Franklin and F**k. I find it hilarious that he actually considered naming America Alfred F**k Jones XD.

Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up in a week or two! See you next time!


	2. Chapter 2

Yay! I finally posted Chapter 2! I'm so sorry it took so long. I forgot how busy Easter Weekend gets for my family DX

Anyways, thank you to all of those who liked, followed, and reviewed my story. I can't tell you how happy it made me to see that you guys actually like this story. You are all so wonderful~!

I would also like to thank Yamiyo. Darknight for looking over my story and for answering my millions of questions about it.

And finally, thank you IggyCat for being a kind and totally awesome person. I've been having a lot of fun writing this for you. I hope you like this next chapter n_n

(I do not own Hetalia or Pokemon)

* * *

The year I spent avoiding Arthur was rough. I felt like I was trapped in some sort of Purgatory where there was no escape from this never-ending awkwardness brought on by mine and Arthur's constant run ins. Every time I stepped out the door Arthur would be right there, walking out of his house the same time as me which would cause me to run back into the house. I would even peek out my window to make sure he wasn't outside, but then I would walk out one second later and poof! He was suddenly there! I started to wonder if Arthur was secretly a ghost and that thought kept me up most nights.

Another thing that sucked about avoiding Arthur was the fact that I didn't have any other friends to hang out with. Growing up I never felt the need to befriend any of the other kids in town because I used to think that Arthur was the only friend I'd ever need. Boy was I wrong... But, in the middle of all this madness, I still had one little ray of sunshine in my life. My Nidoran, Tony.

I had found him injured in the woods a couple weeks after the last Competition and nursed him back to health. He'd come to be my pride and joy. Not only was he a strong hardworking Pokemon he was also playful and made me happy when I started feeling down about the whole Arthur business. He was just a really great Pokemon. He was the smartest Pokemon I'd ever known! He was funny and adorable and… he was missing again.

"Dammit Tony, this is the third time this week!" I shouted at nothing. I was in my backyard looking frantically for my Pokemon. That little Nidoran was really starting to worry me. For the last few weeks, Tony had been wondering off. At first I wasn't too worried about it because he would always come prancing back home not too long after, but now he was running off more often and for longer periods of time. I can't for the life of me understand why he was doing this.

I walked along the side of my house and continued to call out for Tony. I was just about to round the corner to the front of my house but stopped when I heard another voice cry out.

"Mint! Mint where did you scamper off too?!" A worried voice exclaimed. I knew that voice too well and it sounded like it was close by. I started to turn around to make an escape back to my backyard but it was too late. Arthur came running around the corner looking distressed and bumped right into me.

We both stumbled back in shock and stared each other. Arthur was the first to recover and crossed his arms in a huff. "What are you doing here?" He asked angrily.

"I live here." I replied dully and sent a scowl his way. "And you say _I'm_ the idiot."

"I meant what are you doing outside you asshat!" Arthur fumed while turning red; although I'm not sure if that was out of embarrassment or anger. Knowing Arthur though it was probably a bit of both.

"What? Am I not allowed outside?!" I demanded gesturing to the area around me. "Do you own the outdoors? 'Cause last time I checked this was my yard. I should be asking you what _you're_doing here."

Arthur pursed his lips like he was about to retort with another angry remark but seemed to think better of it. He let out the air he was holding and slumped his shoulders. "If you must know, I'm looking for my Mint."

"Mint?" I tilted my head to the side in confusion. "Dude, just go to the store and by some more. They're only like 99￠."

"Not breath mints you idiot!" Arthur steamed. "Mint is the name of my Pokemon." He then looked away from me trying to hide the worried look on his face. "She's been running off quite a lot lately and I can't find her anywhere."

And that's when all my anger towards Arthur started to fizzle. Even though we weren't friends anymore, it still bothered me when he was sad. I looked away from Arthur and rubbed the nape of my neck awkwardly. "Look, my Pokemon is missing too. So if you want… we could look for them together. We'll probably be able to find them faster if we work together."

I glanced back at Arthur who had a grateful expression but he quickly shook it off to feign anger and said, "I suppose we could help each other just this once, but I'm still upset with you."

"The feelings mutual." I replied rolling my eyes. "Come on, I already checked my backyard and nothing was there so lets take a look around your house."

We continued our search sound Arthur's house. Both of us calling after our Pokemon but Tony and Mint were no where to be found. After searching for another half hour, Arthur sat down with his back leaning against his house.

"I really lost her this time." Arthur ran his fingers through his hair looking terribly distressed. "I can't believe I lost her."

"I'm sure they're not lost."I said plopping myself down next to Arthur. I felt just as lousy as he did but I had to keep a positive attitude. "Maybe they're already in their way home."

"I hope so… Mint is my best friend…" Arthur spoke so quietly that I wondered if I'd just imagined he said that.

It stung me a bit to think that my former title of Arthur's best friend was now taken by a Pokemon. But then again, I was pretty much doing the same thing to Arthur by replacing him with Tony.

I looked at Arthur, who had his chin resting in the palm of his hand obviously in deep thought, and I thought of how natural it felt to be sitting next to him. I felt just like how I used to feel around Arthur. There was no competitiveness or insults being thrown at the other. It was just the two of us together and it made me miss the days where Arthur and I would just bond with each other and talk about our dreams to become great trainers.

Maybe I should just apologize to Arthur. It was wrong of me to make that eyebrow comment that day. After all, looking at arthur now I saw that his eyebrows actually framed his face quite nicely… and I never noticed how long his eyelashes were.

I tore my gave away from Arthur and tried not to blush after that last weird thought. I then decided that apologizing and having my old friend back wouldn't be such a bad thing.

I was about to tell Arthur so, but my train of thought was derailed when I heard the sound of a Nidoran coming from the garden.

"Tony?!"

"Mint?!"

Both Arthur's and my heads snapped towards the direction of the sound and before I knew it, the two of us were bolting into the garden. The same garden that neither of us had stepped a foot into for almost a year.

There, by the rose bushes resting beneath my favorite bench, I was relived to find Tony safe and sound. But my relief turned to shock when I saw that Arthur's Pokemon was there as well. My shock only intensified when it turned out that his Pokemon just so happened to be a girl Nidoran and both of our Pokemon looked very close to one another.

Tony, usually a gluttonous little Nidoran, was offering Mint flower petals which she munched on eagerly. Tony then started to fondly nuzzle his head against Mints and she did the same. The two Nidorans looked so adorable and happy together I couldn't help aww at their cute little displays of affection.

But then I remembered that Tony was supposed to compete against Mint. How would he be able to compete if he was making goo goo eyes at another Pokemon?!

"Tony! What do you think you're doing fraternizing with the enemy!" I scolded. "Move away from that thing. It probably has cooties."

"I beg your pardon?!" Arthur exclaimed looking offended. "My Nidoran does not have 'cooties' you oaf! And do you even know what the word 'fraternize' means?"

"It means to like a lot and give lots of praise?"

"… That's idolize you dolt!"

"Whatever, it's the same difference."

"No it's… urgh! You know what?! Just forget it." Arthur rubbed the temple of his head in aggravation. "Anyways, I don't want Mint around your second rate Nidoran."

"Second rate?" Alfred fumed. "My Tony is way better than your stinky Nidoran."

"Pft, stinky? I wouldn't talk if I were you burger breath!" Arthur smirked while I angrily balled my fists at my sides at the 'burger breath' comment. "You're just jealous because my Mint is the best Nidoran around!"

"Yeah right." I scoffed sarcastically. "My Nidoran will wipe the floor with your Nidoran at the competition."

"Is that a challenge?!"

"Hell yes it's a challenge!"

And with that, Arthur angrily snatched Mint away from Tony and said, "Come along, Mint. I don't want you associating with those burger brained nitwits." Mint started to cry softly and reach out over Arthur's shoulder for Tony.

I clenched my teeth together and picked up Tony, who was trying to chase after Arthur and Mint.

"Come on Tony. You're too good for that Nidoran." I stalked off in the opposite direction and ignored the fact that Tony was squirming in my grasp while trying to reach out for Mint.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx  
"And to think that I was actually gonna apologize to that jerk!" I ranted to Tony. I was in the kitchen fixing myself a hamburger and Tony was scratching the door trying to signal that he wanted to go outside, but there was no way I was going to let Tony out of my sight after what I saw today.

"Don't think you're off the hook little dude!" I called over my shoulder. All this time I had been letting Tony wonder off to wherever he wanted to, but he'd been using that freedom to arrange secret meetings with my rival's Pokemon!

"You know there are hundreds, probably even thousands, of Nidorans that you can be with? You can do a lot better than that Nidoran next door." I was happy to hear that the scratching on the door had stopped. That must mean that Tony was listening to what I was saying and probably agreed with me.

"Someday you'll thank me for keeping you away from Mint." I continued to say while smothering ketchup on my burger. "When we start traveling, Alfred F. Jones and Tony the Nidoran will be household names. Then you can have any Nidoran you want."

I finished making my lunch and even made an extra for Tony. (It was our favorite food.) I turned around expecting to see Tony bolting into the room for his food like he usually does, but instead I found an empty kitchen and the backdoor was wide open.

I cursed under my breath and ran outside to look for Tony… again! That's twice in one day. I don't even know how he got the door open! He probably figured out how to open it on his own. Aw, Tony is so smart. He should go on Pokemon's Got Talent and get really famou… no wait! I gotta focus and find out where he ran off to again.

I made my way toward Arthur's house knowing that was most likely the place that Tony had ran off to. As soon as I reached Arthur's house I heard Tony crying. He came running towards me looking freaked out and jumped into my arms.

I held my trembling Pokemon tightly in my arms. I looked around trying to find what had spooked him. Not too far away, Arthur was holding his sides laughing and his mothers Skitty came trotting out of the bushes.

"Arthur! What did you do to Tony?!" I yelled immediately catching his attention.

"Oh calm down." He said picking up Mr. Pinky. "I saw your Nidoran looking for Mint so I had Mr. Pinky hide in the bushes and use Growl to scare him off."

"You had your Skitty use an attack on Tony." I asked in disbelief. "Dude that is totally _not_ cool!"

"It's not my fault your Nidoran is such a scaredy cat." Arthur smirked. "He probably got that from you."

I blushed when I remembered how I refused to let go of Arthur's hand after watching a really scary movie years ago.

"I got scared that one time! And it was a really scary movie." I tried defending myself, but Arthur was already walking back into his house.

"Whatever. Just keep your Nidoran off my property." He ordered before closing the door.

I stomped back to my house still carrying Tony. I bolted the door this time to make sure that there was no way for Tony to open it and set him down. I tried coaxing Tony to eat his lunch but the little guy just wasn't in the mood to eat anything, which is abnormal for a Pokemon who usually eats every food in sight.

This was all Arthur's fault. And somehow, I was gonna get back at him for scaring Tony.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx  
It had been a few days since I'd let Tony outside because I was afraid that he'd try finding Mint again. But I was starting to feel bad about keeping him cooped up and decided to let him outside… with my supervision of course.

Tony appreciated being outdoors once again and frolicked happily in the grass. I watched him fondly but noticed that he kept looking at the garden.

I averted my gaze to the garden as well. It saddened me to think that the garden wasn't being used as much as it usually was. The only reason why I didn't like going into the garden was because it reminded me too much of Arthur. Some of our best memories together took place in that garden. So every time I went near it I would get all nostalgic and I couldn't have that! I'm supposed to be mad at Arthur. Not wanting to go back to when we would play games with each other!

I was pulled out of my thoughts when I heard scurrying not to far away from me. Hiding in the bushes, I could see Mint poking her head around for Tony.

Well that was just annoying! Arthur's been on my case about Tony getting into his yard but he was letting this little runt go around wherever she pleased?! I don't think so.

I reached over to the twist on the knob that controlled the sprinklers. A moment later, the sprinklers sprang to life and water showered down on the hedges. Mint yelped in shock and ran back to Arthur's house, but not before getting drenched on her way over.

Tony shot me an angry look but that didn't stop me from bursting into a fit of laughter. I picked Tony up and brought him inside before Arthur could figure out what I did to his Nidoran.

When we got inside I felt a sharp pain on my hand. I yelped and dropped Tony immediately. He scurried away and left me alone to look at my injured hand.

Apparently, Tony was more upset then I thought he was about what I'd just done to Mint. He had scratched my hand hard enough to leave three small cuts. Tony had never acted violently towards me before! Did he really care about Mint soo much that he felt the need to punish me for a little prank?!

I sank into the nearest couch feeling depressed. First I lost Arthur now it looked like I was losing Tony. Why is it so hard for me to keep friends?

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx  
It was now the day of my 4th Competition. It had taken me a while to get back on Tony's good side. It took a lot of apologies (and hamburgers) to get Tony to let me enter him into the event.

I made sure to get there extra early so I could have a room by myself for a little while. I started to practice with Tony a but 10 minutes into our exercise, the door slammed open.

I snapped my head towards the door and Arthur was standing there looking peeved.

"Good morning Kirkland." I greeted smugly.

"Don't you 'good morning' me Jones." He seethed. He placed Mint (who was in his arms) on the ground before marching towards me. He halted a foot away and angrily stabbed a finger at my chest. "I know it was you who did that to Mint!" He accused. "How could you scare her like that?!"

"You used Mr. Pinky to scare Tony." I pointed out.

"So you think that makes it perfectly alright to spray water all over Mint?!"

"Well, you know what they say about two wrongs making a right."

"Are you referring to the saying 'two wrongs _don't_ make a right'?!"

"Nah, that can't be it." I replied trying to recall the saying my mother told me while Arthur did a face palm.

"You are so frustrating." Arthur groaned in irritation. "I just want to get through this event without us doing anymore bickering, so you stay on this side of the room and I'll stay on the other."

"That's fine by me." I approved. "Come on Tony. We have more training to do anyways." I turned around to continue my warmups with Tony but he was gone.

I whipped my head around trying to see where he'd gone. Arthur, who was also looking around the room frantically, locked eyes with me and we both immediately understood what was going on.

"They ran off together!" We exclaimed at the same time. We quickly ran out I the waiting room to search or them. We only had half an hour before the event started!

"This is all your Nidorans fault." Arthur yelled as we continued to run.

"No, this is _your_ Nidorans fault!" I snapped back once we got outside. "If she hadn't been batting those big eyelashes of hers at Tony he never would've fallen victim to her charms."

"Well, maybe if Tony didn't act like such perky little do-gooder she would've seen that he was just an egotistical jerk and never would have batted a single eyelash his way!" Arthur yelled back.

I felt like we weren't really talking about our Pokemon anymore but I didn't dwell on the matter. For right then a loud roar ripped through the air causing Arthur and me to stop.

"W-what was that?" Arthur stammered.

"I'm not sure." I replied uneasily. Whatever it was sounded large and I was afraid that Tony and Mint had run into it. I looked towards the wooded area where the sound came from and pointed in that direction. "I think it came from over there. Let's go."

I was surprised that Arthur followed me towards the scary sound without any objections. He, like me, was probably worried that Tony and Mint might get hurt by whatever it was.

Not too deep in the heavily wooded area. Arthur and I found Tony and Mint huddled together against a tree looking very frightened. At the other end of the thicket was…

"Oh my gosh! That's a Dophan!" Arthur yelped. I had never seen a Dophan before but I've heard that they are very powerful.

The Dophan stamped its feet menacingly and the ground seemed to tremble beneath it.

"It's going to attack our Nidorans." Arthur exclaimed worriedly. "We need to distract it so they can get away."

I looked around trying to find something that we could use for a distraction. Without really thinking I picked up a rock and chucked it at the Dophan. Arthur blinked in shock at what I'd just done but then picked up another rock and chucked it at the Dophan as well.

"It's backing away." Arthur said with wide eyes as the Dophan shook its head in a sorry attempt to dodge the rocks.

"I can't believe this is actually working." I replied feeling hopeful that we would could get out of this situation unhurt. "If we keep this up then… holy mother of god! It's coming this way!"

The Dophan curled in on itself and began rolling full speed towards Arthur and me. At the last second I grasped Arthur's arm and pulled him sideways. The Dophan barely missed us and uprooted the the tree behind us. It uncurled itself and stood upright again. It faced Arthur and me, who were still huddled together on the ground, and stamped its feet again.

I instinctively held onto Arthur's hand for comfort and braced myself for its next attack, but the attack never came. Out of no where, Tony and Mint used tackle attack at the same time and it was strong enough to make the Dophan stumble to its side.

The Dophan quickly recovered and was about to attack again.

"Use scratch attack!" Arthur and I turned to look at each other in shock when we realized we told our Pokemon to use the same attack against the Dophan before turning our attention back to our fighting Pokemon.

Tony and Mint started swiping their claws at the large Pokemon causing it to stumble back further. It then brought up its huge trunk and swung it down. It managed to hit Tony and send him flying a couple of feet away.

Then, with force I didn't know was possible for such a small Pokemon, Mint tackled the Dophan to the ground before it could land another attack on Tony. This gave Tony enough time to pick himself up and rejoin Mint in the fight.

At this point the Dophan started to look a bit weary so I knew now was the time for a final blow.

"Tony! Mint! Use Fury Swipe!" Arthur and I called out in sync with each other once again.

Tony and Mint used their Fury Swipes against the Dophan. The Dophan, now realizing this fight wasn't worth its time, retreated into the woods to avoid anymore of Tony and Mint's attacks.

Once the Dophan was out of sight, Arthur and I rushed forward to praise our Pokemon.

"Tony you did a great job fighting that Dophan." I crouched down to pet Tony's head.

"You too Mint. I'm so proud of you." Arthur smiled softly and scratched his Nidoran lightly behind the ears.

I agreed with Arthur. I felt very proud of our Nidorans for the hard work they'd done battling such a powerful Pokemon. Any other Nidoran would have been pummeled by a Dophan of that sized. But Tony and Mint loved each other so much that they were fueled to fight their hardest or each other.

Maybe it was the high I got from such an epic battle or maybe it was because I enjoyed how well Arthur and I worked together, but looking at Arthur I finally realized exactly how much I missed his company and how badly I wanted him back as my best friend.

"Ahem." I coughed awkwardly into my hand to get Arthur's attention. He stopped petting Mint to look up at me with his big emerald eyes. "Um, you did really good back there Arthur."

Arthur's cheeks turned slightly pink at the compliment. He averted his eyes and replied. "Don't be ridiculous. Mint and Tony did all the work. They make a great team."

"Yeah well, we make a great team too." I stated shyly. Arthur looked back at me in surprise. I took a deep breath to calm myself before I continued speaking. "Look Arthur, I'm really sorry I got so competitive with you. I know you're probably still really angry with me for all of the mean stuff I said… but I've really missed you. So, do you think that there's anyway we could be friends again or set up some kind of truce for Tony and Mint's sake?"

Arthur continued to stare at me in shock, like he couldn't believe I was actually apologizing to him. After a few moments, Arthur regained his composure. "You're not the only one who got competitive. I'm sorry for all the hurtful things I've said to you… And I would very much like it if we were friends again."

When Arthur said that I felt a huge weight lifted off I my shoulders. I couldn't help but pull my friend into a bone crushing hug and laugh happily. Arthur half-heartlessly opposed the hug but I could tell that he was just as happy as I was to be friends again.

Tony and Mint looked ecstatic about our reformed friendship. They leaped together and shared a light kiss. As soon as their tiny lips touched, a bright light shined and enveloped them. When the light faded, Tony had evolved into a Nidorino and Mint had evolved into a Nidorina.

"T-the battle must have made them evolve." Arthur muttered to himself. We were both in awe of our newly evolved Pokemon. But I didn't agree with Arthur. If I didn't know any better, I would have said that what actually made them transform was the ki… "Alfred! The competition is going to start in less than five minutes. We'd better hurry if we still want to participate."

Arthur pulled me out of my thoughts when showed me the time on his wristwatch. We hurried to the competition and made it right on time; and thanks to our newly evolved Pokemon, Arthur and I easily took first place once again. Only this time we were both thrilled to share first place.

In the weeks following the competition, Arthur and I worked on building a playhouse for Tony and Mint in the garden. The time we spent working on the on the playhouse brought us even closer together. We even started making plans to travel together once we both received our Pokemon Trainer's licence. I'd always been excited about becoming a great Pokemon Trainer, but now I was even more excited than ever because I knew that my best friend Arthur Kirkland would be by my side.

* * *

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I am still going to write a epilogue so stay tuned for that. (I meant epilogue! Thanks IggyCat for catching that! I said prologue but I meant epilogue! *face palm*)

Reviews are greatly appreciated. Thank you everyone for reading n_n


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